The fierce athletes chasing down meteoric tennis balls in the U.S. Open are playing a game that bears little resemblance to tennis at its inception. A millennium ago, French monks strung a rope across the stones of the monastery courtyard and played a simple game they christened Jeu de Paume, “game of the hand.”
It is theorized that the word “tennis” originated with these monks who shouted, “Tenez!” (roughly the French equivalent for “Take this!” or “Take heed!”) whenever they served the ball.
Tennis, once played in a closed courtyard with wooden balls, has become a high-speed, high-stakes enterprise played by millions of people around the world.
Facts and Figures
1000 A.D. - Jeu de Paume was born in a monastery in France.
1500s - Tennis became more unified as it is adopted by European nobility.
1625 -The oldest surviving tennis court was built at Hampton Court Palace in England.
1850 - Charles Goodyear invented a new product called “rubber.” The first tennis balls were made of wood and, later, of leather. Rubber tennis balls made it possible to play the game on grass.
1874 - The first tennis courts appeared in the United States.
1877 - The first tennis championships were played at Wimbledon, England. Wimbledon’s first champion, Spencer Gore, did not think so highly of tennis and preferred cricket. Gore reported, “Lawn tennis is a bit boring. It will never catch on.”
1881 - The predecessor to the U.S. Open, a men’s only tournament, began in Newport, Rhode Island. It was a high society occasion known as the U.S. National Singles Championship.
1887 - Women first played at the U.S. Women's National Singles Championship.
1930 - Brame Hillyard first wore shorts on the court at Wimbledon in a dramatic break from the long, white trousers of the time. At one point, the game required hats and ties, and shoes with heels.
1968 - The predecessor tournaments (men's and women’s singles, men's and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles) combined to form the U.S. Open as we know it today. Professional players were now allowed to compete.
1977 - The first transgender woman, Renee Richards, played in the U.S. Open. Richards was denied admission the year prior, when she refused to take a chromosome test in order to prove she was, in fact, female. Richards challenged the chromosome test and was admitted to the 1977 U. S. Open.
152 m.p.h. - Speed of the fastest U.S. Open serve, by Andy Roddick in 2004.
If you’d like to experience the sensation of being in the path of a 150 m.p.h. tennis ball, watch here.
22,000 - The number of seats in the The Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the U.S. Open is played. It is the largest tennis stadium in the world.
17.68 million - The number of Americans estimated to have played tennis in 2013.
44.8 million dollars - The amount of money U.S. Open players could potentially win during this year’s U.S. Open.
Sources:
1) US Open Tournament History. tennistours.com. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
http://www.tennistours.com/us-open/history
2) History. wimbledon.com. Retrieved September 3rd, 2015.
http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/atoz/history.html
3) 9 Things You May Not Know About Wimbledon. history.com. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
http://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-wimbledon
4) ‘No Exceptions,’ and No Renee Richards. nytimes.com. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/year_in_sports/08.27.html
5) History of Tennis. history.co.uk. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-football-tennis/history-of-tennis
6) U.S. Open Tennis History. ticketcity.com. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
https://www.ticketcity.com/us-open-tennis-tickets/us-open-tennis-history.html
7) Number of participants in tennis in the United States from 2006 to 2013 (in millions)* statista.com. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/191966/participants-in-tennis-in-the-us-since-2006
8) Was This How Tennis was Introduced? Athnet. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-tennis.htm
Reviewed September 7, 2015
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith